The Worst Store-Bought Pizza Sauce Is An Iconic Grocery Brand

A jar of pizza sauce is a versatile item with which to bulk out your pantry. Aside from using it to lather on top of a homemade batch of pizza dough, it also subs as an aromatic pasta sauce, a tasty binder for meatloaf, and even as a base for a super-quick, fire-roasted shakshuka. While many store-bought iterations of this time-saving ingredient are flavorful enough to use in any of these dishes, there is one pizza sauce from an iconic grocery brand that we would not advise purchasing due to its overtly tangy flavor and dimensionless texture: Trader Giotto's Fat Free Pizza Sauce from Trader Joe's.

The loser in Tasting Table writer Fletcher Huntley's ranking of 11 grocery store pizza sauce brands, this pizza sauce was simply too acidic for his liking. This may come as a surprise considering that many of Trader Joe's offerings, such as its range of prepared foods and snacks, rarely fail to pass muster. While the sauce had a great viscosity — not too thick, but loose enough to spread over a pizza base and cling to the dough — its astringent quality doesn't pair well with the creaminess of mozzarella-topped crust.

Furthermore, the sauce doesn't feature any chopped tomatoes. Rather, it contains a mixture of tomato paste and water, which contributes to its lack of texture and substance, even though the label describes it as "hearty." If you prefer smooth pizza sauces, you may appreciate Trader Joe's Fat Free Pizza Sauce, but here at Tasting Table, we felt that its consistency was severely lacking.

It's true that a touch of tartness is to be expected with a tomato-based pizza sauce. That comes with the territory. However, the sauce should still have a balanced quality that allows it to meld with the creaminess of a gooey, melted cheese pull. Take a look at the label on a jar of Trader Joe's Fat Free Pizza Sauce, and you'll see it contains a preservative called citric acid. Citric acid is often used in sauces and marinades to slow the growth of bacteria and boost shelf life. Consequently, it imparts an inherent tart and mouth-puckering flavor. While the Fat Free Pizza Sauce recipe also includes sugar to counterbalance some of the tanginess, the sauce remained a bit too astringent.

If that doesn't sound appealing, the winner in our grocery store pizza sauce ranking, Rao's pizza sauce, does not contain any citric acid or added sugar. This impressive sauce boasts heaps of punchy flavor and plenty of welcome texture from the fresh tomatoes featured in the recipe. Additionally, the sauce achieves the perfect balance of sweetness and acidity, which can be attributed to the slow-cooking process that all Rao's tomato sauces undergo. Simmering the tomatoes gently with carrots allows their natural sweetness to come to the fore and intensifies their flavor. This is why the recipe doesn't call for any sugar or extra preservatives to balance its velvety personality, unlike other store-bought pizza sauces.